The Quest of Our Leader: Let's Play Persona 4
by Cayman Roader
Summary: Can seven peoples' combined efforts match that of one Yu Narukami? One month after Yu's departure from Inaba, an odd game mysteriously appears in Yosuke's room. Upon closer inspection, he realizes that it isn't just any old game, that's the Investigation Team on the box! Tasked with completing the same journey their leader did, they must venture into a story they know all too well.


**Author's Note**

Before the story begins, I feel as though I should say:

1) This was inspired by Let's Play Persona 3 FES by NoRoleModelz over on FFN. Check it out if you haven't before, it's quite good, though it hasn't been updated in about a year. I'm actually surprised that there wasn't a fic like this for Persona 4.

2) I'm using Persona 4 Vanilla because the Vita would not have been out at the time which this story takes place, among other reasons into which I will not divulge.

Also, as I'm sure you've already guessed, I don't own Persona 4, or any of its characters for that matter. That all belongs to Atlus.

* * *

**Chapter 1: Prologue**

"Man, I'm beat." Yosuke flopped down onto his futon after a long day of working the grocery department at Junes. "I gotta ask Dad for fewer hours, these housewives are gonna be the death of me."

"I dunno what's got you so mis-bear-le, Yosuke. I think today was one of the best days I've had at work in a while." Teddie responded from his spot on the beanbag chair on the other side of the room.

"That's just 'cause you got mascot duty today! All you had to do was stand around and look good! Meanwhile, I had to run to the back every half hour scavenging for cayenne pepper! I don't even know what cayenne is!"

"It's a sorta hot pepper people use to add flavor to their cooking. I think Sensei used it in some of his dishes." Teddie responded.

"Really? Well, if that's the case, then I can see why so many people would want it." A beat. "Damn, I miss Yu's cooking." Another. "Damn, I miss Yu." Thinking about his friend of days passed brought a cloud of sadness upon Yosuke's mood. Oh, how he longed to go back to the days when he could laugh alongside his partner. But even though Yu Narukami, savior of Inaba and quite possibly the world, could no longer be with them on the physical plain, he would always live on in the hearts and min-

"C'mon Yosuke, don't be so dramatic. He only moved back to the city last month, and it's not like we haven't spoken to him since." Teddie interjected, interrupting Yosuke's line of thought.

Okay, so maybe he wasn't dead, but 'what we perceive is reality' and all that, y'know? "But it's so boring without him here! You can't tell me you don't think so, too!" Yosuke retorted. "Oh wait, you probably don't think, period. Not having a brain and all."

"Now that's just rude. If Sensei was here, he'd tell you to ease up on the whole picking on Teddie business." It was then that the reality of what he said struck him. "But he's not here…" And just like that, Teddie's mood had fallen, just as Yosuke's did moments ago. "Now look what you've gone and done, Yosuke! You got me feeling mis-bear-le, too!"

"Well, you know what they say, 'mis-bear-y loves company.'" The feeling of regret was immediate, if the look on Yosuke's face was anything to go by. "Dear God, I don't know how you do it, Ted. I feel like taking a cold shower after saying just one of those awful puns."

"Puns? What're you talking about?"

"...Nevermind." Leaving that conversation for another day, Yosuke decided to prepare himself for bed.

"Yosuke?" Teddie spoke up again.

"What is it this time, Ted?" He replied.

"Do you mind if I use your PS2? I'm not all that tired just yet."

Yosuke seemed to ponder this for a moment. "Sure, just don't put the volume on too loud, and don't go to sleep too late, we have the morning shift tomorrow."

"Alright. Thanks, Yosuke!" Teddie replied, already sifting through Yosuke's sizable catalog of games.

With that, Yosuke saw it fit to drift off into dreamland and mentally prepare himself for another day of working at Junes. The world seemed to not share his sentiment however, as right when he set his head down on his pillow, Teddie just had to bother him again. "Y-Yosuke?" He spoke up, his voice trembling.

"What do you want this time?" Yosuke asked, turning to face Teddie, annoyed about his delayed sleep.

"You might want to take a look at this." He replied, holding a game case Yosuke didn't recognize.

"If you're getting me out of bed for nothing, I swear to God." Yosuke said, already making his way over to the other side of the room.

"Really, Yosuke! I think this could be serious!" Teddie exclaimed, shoving the case into his hands.

Not believing what he was saying, Yosuke took the case from Teddie anyway, wanting to calm him down and get back to his futon. "I don't know what's got you so worked up, this just looks like a normal game to… me…" That was when he saw it. He was on the game box. And not just him, either. Chie, Yukiko, Kanji, Rise, Teddie, and Naoto were all there, too. To top it all off, Yu was sitting front and center, right under his first Persona, Izanagi. "_Persona 4_? What the hell is this?"

"Now do you see what I was so worried about!?"

Yosuke, still trying to rationalize what he was seeing, tried questioning Teddie. "How am I supposed to know that this isn't just an elaborate prank on your part?"

Teddie gasped. "Yosuke! You know I would never stoop that low just for a laugh! I thought you knew me well enough to at least know that I have morals!"

'_I know you well enough to know how questionable those morals are._' Yosuke thought before conceding to Teddie's rebuttal. "Right, sorry." He turned the case over to see if he could glean any more information. "'Tune in, turn on, drop dead,'" '_Bringing back bad memories already, huh?' _He thought before continuing, "'A rumor is going around school that by looking at a TV screen at 12:oo AM on a rainy night, the face of your soulmate will be revealed. But is that all?' Probably not, considering how the last year of our lives went." He snickered at his own joke, but didn't garner the same response from Teddie, who urged him to keep going. "Moving on, 'A chain of murders appears to be connected to the rumor, and you and your team of Persona users must brave the mysterious TV world before another schoolmate dies.' Huh. Well that told us nothing we didn't already know."

"And we still have no idea where it came from! Who would even know enough about us to make a fake game box like this-" Realization seemed to strike Teddie at that exact moment as his eyes widened. "What if there's an actual game in there, Yosuke?"

"You don't really think there could actually be…" He opened it up, and lo' and behold a disc emblazoned with Yu's face was sitting right in the case, just waiting to be played. "...Well I'll be damned."

"What should we do?"

"Hmm…" After thinking about it for a moment, Yosuke responded, "I say we sleep on it, and if when we wake up tomorrow the game is nowhere to be found, we forget this ever happened."

"And if it's still here?"

"That's the possibility I didn't want to consider," He said, hanging his head, "but if that is the case, then we'll call everyone over to Junes tomorrow and show it to them."

"Alright. Well, I think I'm gonna hit the hay. I don't really feel like playing games anymore." Teddie said, downtrodden.

"Good idea, I think I'll do the same, this whole situation took a lot out of me." Yosuke replied.

"Okay, good night, Yosuke."

"Night, Ted."

* * *

**The Next Morning...**

* * *

Yosuke had been awake for about half an hour at this point, but was keeping his eyes closed on purpose. He was trying to put off seeing if the game had disappeared or not, not wanting to face the very real chance that last night was not just a very weird dream brought on by a long, tiring shift at Junes. He could hear Teddie getting up on the other side of the room, so he knew this period of blissful ignorance wouldn't last much longer. Sure enough, just moments later, Teddie was at Yosuke's bedside trying to shake him awake.

"Yosuke, get up!" Teddie exclaimed.

"I'm up, I'm up!" Yosuke responded. "What do you want?" He asked, knowing full well what was coming.

"The game, it's still here!" Just as he said, the game was still sitting on the table in the middle of the room, right where they had left it the night before.

Yosuke had to internalize a groan. "Guess we're going with Plan B. I'll call up everyone when we get off. C'mon, we gotta get ready, we've got a long day ahead of us."

"Alright."

After preparing themselves for work, Yosuke grabbed the case and began to go over how he would present this to the now-defunct Investigation Team.

* * *

**Junes Food Court, Afternoon...**

* * *

Naoto was the first to arrive at the old headquarters, questioning Yosuke and Teddie as she sat herself down. "I trust that you did not call everyone out here for no reason."

"I swear it's important. We'll explain everything when everyone gets here." Yosuke responded, Teddie nodding beside him.

Chie and Yukiko were the next to arrive, with Rise following soon after and Kanji arriving last. "Alright, we're all here. Now what is it that you wanted to show us?" Chie asked. In response, Yosuke simply stayed silent, took out the case and laid it on the table.

"You wasted our time to show off your new game? Man, I'm outta here!" Kanji exclaimed, frustrated that a meeting was called for something that was so unimportant.

"Look a little closer." Yosuke spoke up.

Kanji took the case, saying, "Dude, I really don't care if you got a new… game…" Actually looking at the box, he had the same reaction Yosuke had the night prior.

"What's wrong?" Rise asked, taking the case from Kanji. "Hey, this ain't half bad, Yosuke-senpai! Though, I could have a bit more space to myself."

Chie then ripped the case from Rise's grasp. "Woah, this is cool!"

"Why do I take up so much space on this?" Yukiko asked, looking on with Chie.

"May I see it?" Naoto asked Chie from the other side of the table, who handed over the case. She looked it over it for a moment before speaking up again, saying, "While this is all very impressive, Yosuke-senpai, Teddie, I must ask, when were you able to take these pictures, without our knowledge, no less?"

"That's actually the reason we called you all here." Yosuke said. "Y'see, we didn't make this."

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Chie.

"Exactly what it sounds like, Chie-chan. We didn't make this, it just showed up in Yosuke's room last night!" Teddie answered.

"And that's not all. When we opened it up, there was an actual game in there." Yosuke said, picking up where Teddie left off. This led to Naoto opening the case, where, just as they had said, there was a disc marked with the face of Yu Narukami sitting untouched.

"At least they chose a good picture to put on the disc." Naoto said, admiring the image of her significant other.

"Ooh, Senpai's only been gone a month and you're already longing for his return, ey, Naoto-kun?" Rise said, teasing Naoto.

Turning her cap down in an attempt to hide her blush, Naoto responded, "I'd rather not have that conversation right now."

"So you don't deny it!"

"Rise-san, please." She pleaded.

"Alright, alright, I'll drop it. For now, at least." Rise responded, earning a groan from Naoto.

Trying to get the conversation back on track, Yosuke began again, "Anyway, that brings us to where we are now. We wanted to get you guys' opinions on what we should do from here."

"Why don't we try, y'know, playing it?" Chie suggested.

"Yeah, I agree. We won't get anywhere by just staring at the case." Added Yukiko.

"Seems like it's the only thing we can do." Yosuke said, getting up from his seat. "Are we all in agreement, then?" Everyone nodded in affirmation. "Good. Let's head to my place, I'm pretty sure I'm the only one out of all of us with a PS2." With that, the group started making their way to Yosuke's house to see what the game had in store for them.

* * *

**Yosuke's House...**

* * *

"Here we are. My room's the first door on the right at the top of the stairs. I'll be up in a sec, gonna grab some refreshments. Teddie, help me carry the stuff up." Yosuke said upon arriving at his home.

With everyone upstairs and refreshments in hand, Teddie and Yosuke were about to make their way upstairs themselves. It was then that Teddie noticed some things sitting on the counter. "Yosuke, what's this?"

Yosuke picked up the first object, a note, and read it aloud. "'Yosuke, this came in the mail for you. -Mom.'" Beside the note was a letter with only Yosuke's name written on it, no return address to be found, the look of which seemed all too familiar.

"Hey, Yosuke, this is beary reminiscent of those letters Sensei got a while back." Teddie said, his voice shaking with fear.

"You were thinking it too, huh?" Yosuke replied. "C'mon, let's bring it up and show the others." He said, already making his way towards the staircase.

When the pair made it to the room, Chie was the first to greet them. "Geez, what took you guys so long?"

"Something caught our attention." Yosuke replied, pulling out the letter before continuing, "It came for me in the mail."

Realization seemed to hit everyone at once as they all sat there in stunned silence. Yukiko was the first to speak up after a few moments. "That looks just like the letters Adachi sent to Yu."

"But ain't that bastard rotting away in the clink? How'd he send out mail from inside the slammer?" Kanji asked.

"What if it wasn't Adachi that sent the letter?" Chie proposed.

"That is a possibility. We have faced copycat situations before. Let us not forget how Mitsuo Kubo planned to take credit for all the murders, although he only commited one." Naoto supplied before turning to face Yosuke. "If you would please read the letter, we may be able to glean some more information."

Complying with her request, he opened the letter and began to read it aloud. "'To the allies of he who saw the truth, from what I have witnessed throughout the past year, it seems as though your leader led a very interesting life, one I doubt many others could handle. There are many events that occurred that you may not know he partook in, all to aid in your efforts to seek the truth. I wished to see if the company he kept could pull achieve what he did. Luckily for me, a reality different from your own held the answer to my desires. To put it simply, in this alternate reality, the story that had unfolded within the past year is merely a piece of media, made to entertain the masses. Worry not, however, for your reality is not a result of this other one, it just coexists alongside the other, with yours happening to be represented as a game within it.'" With that, any underlying existential fears were quashed before they could ever arise. "'Now, I could have just left this at giving you the game, but that would have been no fun, so, I've given some stakes to the situation. Should you be unable to complete what your leader did, I shall once again descend upon your town, and with me will return the fog that shrouded the truth. Of course, you will not be allowed the help of your leader, as that would defeat the whole purpose of this challenge. With that, I bid you good luck, as you will need it should you wish to succeed. Regards, Izanami.'"

"Wait a minute, Izanami? I thought we beat that bitch for good!" Kanji said, visibly seething with anger.

"_We_ didn't beat her, remember? It was Yu who beat her, and even then, it was more like he just got her to lay off." Yosuke said in response.

"But now that he's not here, she thinks she can do whatever she wants." Rise added. "Still, it's just a game, it can't be that hard to beat, right?"

"I wouldn't underestimate Senpai's feats so much, Rise-san. Either way, I don't believe we have much of a choice, considering the consequences that would come of our inaction." Naoto said.

"I guess that settles it then, huh? Well, I guess that's what we came here to do anyway." Yosuke said, reaching for the game case and taking out the disc. "Is everyone ready?"

They all gave an affirmative nod, prompting Yosuke to put the game into the console.

"Gotta admit, I'm kind of excited to see what Senpai's daily life was like. I would always hear stories from my classmates of him running around town, helping whoever he could." Rise said in anticipation.

"I can't say I disagree." Naoto said in response.

Moving his finger to the power button, Yosuke said, "Alright then, let's get started." Power on.


End file.
